Psalm 41
Title
לַמְנַצֵּ֗חַ מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד
1Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. 2Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies. 3Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness. 4I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.” 5My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” 6If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it. 7All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me. 8“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.” 9Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me. 10But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them. 11By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me. 12As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. 13Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.
Introduction
Psalms 41
God's kindness and truth have often been the support and comfort of the saints when they have had most experience of man's unkindness and treachery. David here found them so, upon a sick-bed; he found his enemies very barbarous, but his God very gracious. I. He here comforts himself in his communion with God under his sickness, by faith receiving and laying hold of God's promises to him (Psa 41:1-3) and lifting up his heart in prayer to God (Psa 41:4). II. He here represents the malice of his enemies against him, their malicious censures of him, their spiteful reflections upon him, and their insolent conduct towards him (Psa 41:5-9). III. He leaves his case with God, not doubting but that he would own and favour him (Psa 41:10-12), and so the psalm concludes with a doxology (Psa 41:13). Is any afflicted with sickness? let him sing the beginning of this psalm. Is any persecuted by enemies? let him sing the latter end of it; and we may any of us, in singing it, meditate upon both the calamities and comforts of good people in this world.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Cross-references: Ps 41:1 · Ps 41:4 · Ps 41:5 · Ps 41:10 · Ps 41:13